social media
Is ROI on Social Media a waste of time?
July 12, 2010 in All posts
I recently wrote a fairly long (rambling?) post about Social Media, and whether it was right for business. I included a bunch of bullet points around why, how and where it could be used. I also included a bit around tracking ROI, and stipulated that regular success metrics were not geared up for the intricacies of this new era of online interaction. It’s this point that I’ve been mulling.
Perhaps controversially, I wonder if trying to track ROI in Social Media is actually completely missing the point of it.
By its very definition, Social Media is – rightly or wrongly – basically an alternative for regular socialisation: a digital proxy for human interaction, where we can talk, recommend, ‘like’ things, spread the word about whatever takes our fancy…it’s doing nothing more than broadening the reach of interaction and speeding it up at the same time. Essentially, this is not drastically different to any other major socio-computational advance in the last 40 years or so.
So: is trying to place a dollar value on this digitised interaction – whether it be a Facebook fan, a Tweet in your favour, or an emailed-to-a-friend product – actually pretty futile? Shouldn’t the focus of Social Media be more about people than business, and if a business benefits then it’s because of quality interactions undertaken by humans being…well, human?
Zappos are often cited as a best-practice example, because they use Social as genuine customer service channels. Whilst digital channels can’t communicate the intricacies of human interaction, such as the various undertones & overtones of body language, speech inflection & intonation, etc – it does offer the speed & reach already discussed which is perfect for helping other humans do human things (I don’t mean having a poo in the woods, here – I mean carry out their various tasks successfully).
Can a value be put on that? Should a value be put on it? Shouldn’t companies just be as human as possible and just be helpful or interesting?
Perhaps an irrelevant comparison to draw, but stepping back for a moment, imagine being sat in a pub 40 years ago. Mmm beer.
0Social media: is it right for my business?
June 14, 2010 in All posts
I’ve recently been mired in a lot of work and thoughts around Social, and how – and more importantly where – it should be applied for a business. Here’re my thoughts, compiled into one article. I draw on a number of articles from the likes of eConsultancy and others to compile the content. Hope you like it: any feedback welcome.
Social Media is now the #1 activity online (supplanting ‘adult movies’) according to speakers at the 2010 Internet World Expo. Whilst this is no doubt true, it’s not advisable to simply jump in without a loose strategy or planning to support it. Any interactions need to be relevant, engaging and timely – or users will get annoyed, and the result will end up overwhelmingly negative.
Relevant:
Shouting about a product that isn’t relevant to someone will result in failure. Ensure thought & research goes into approaching/following the right people – at the right time.
Engaging:
Twitter in particular allows for near-real time engagement with users Tweeting about certain issues. Making helpful comments or suggestions when the user needs them is a great way to start building a fanbase of relevant/interested people – helping the relevancy above.
Timely:
As above – making sure that interjections and comments are made at the right time.
Brand relevancy.
Thought needs to go into whether SM is the right promotion method for a brand, taking into account:
- The type of product(s) sold/offered
Some products or services are not naturally geared up to be sold/promoted/serviced by SM - The demographic of their typical customer (AKA audience relevancy)
If the target market does not read blogs, use Twitter or is active on Facebook – those are not the avenues to choose - What’s the aim for using this channel?
Is it to be a customer service channel? A device for pushing sales of products? Something to drive customer engagement? This needs to be defined early – and in conjunction with 1 & 2 - Resource
Is there the resource/staff to manage social interactions online? Engaging in the social space is typically time-consuming and potentially difficult to measure ROI
Just because a tool is available doesn’t mean it is right for the situation. Hammering nails in with a saw instead of a hammer is inefficient, and will most likely result in failure: the same is true of promotion via social media. It’s worth noting that achieving cut-through in SM can be tricky.